St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-08

attended. Mr. Alien was born t,ars.H
40, IN log cabin in Farminrt0u. Ne,
He was wild youth, and while attend
ing a camp meeting for the purpose of
making fun he became converted After
that camp meetings had a peculiar
charm for him. and he attended
them far and near as convenient,
until his death. He began preaching
in mature life, and was admitted as a
member of the Maine Conference. He
served as chaplain of the Maine House of
Representatives in 1879 and 1891 On the
Tuesday evening preceding his death he
preached sermon which greatly ex-
hausted him, so that he was i'll the next
morning, but he rallied in the afternoon,
and was seated in his chair conyrrsinr
with friends when death came He vas
widely known and universally respected
for his sincere Christian character
UNITING FAITHS
The union Of the United Brethren and
Cumberland Presbyterian Churches has
recently been suggested by an earnest
writer. After speaking of the respects in
which the two den N nations art alike,
the author Of the proposition for union
says: In church polity they are Chiefly
unlike, yet the differences a. rot
so great but that by mutua! CONFESS
sions a basis of union might easily
be reached The modified itincrant PLAN
OF the United Brethren would Well! ~ulti-
GENTLY to meet the preshvtcrial form OF
polity on common ground Tie United
Brethren Church has a membership at
present Of -, l03, a Gain last year Of
ll,S3s. The membership Of the Cumhcr
land Presbyterian Church is i3> 5Gl,
which shows a net gain during the past
year OF $500. United they would make
strong and vigorous church.
EVENTS AND OPINIONS.
A Calcutta paper calls attention to a
remarkable decline in the popularity of
the great Rath Jattra, or car festival, at
the Juggernaut temple in Orissa The
number of visitors this year shows
large decrease, which, indeed, has been
going on steadily for some years past.
The religious enthusiasm of the crowd
is said to be also disappearing There ie
no longer a wild rush for the car in
which the idol is dragged from the tenn
pie to a country house and back again,
and on several occasions it has been
necessary to hire coolies to perform the
work.
The committee of the Evangelical Mis-
sionary Society of Paris has declined the
invitation of the government to send mis-
siOnaries to Madagascar 1t finds the
field already occupied by the London
Society, and will not introduce division
into it. Hence it answers that French
evangelical missionaries will be sent to
Madagascar only when the churches there
invite them.
The Free Church of Scotland has
a mission school at Bandane, Lake
Nyassa, of 1,3 scholars in daily attend
ance, of whom seventy eli ght are reading
and studying the four gospels. Some
of the children come a distance of four
miles to the school, and do it voluntarily
Some of the bows, it is said, display
surprising aptitude in learning.
The Bremen Mission on the slave coast
returned more than hundred baptisms
of natives during 1856, siXty-nine Of
which were of adults In the ten years
from 1876 to 1886 the number of Chris
tians has risen from 115 to 800. The d.
rectorv of the deacOnesses' house at
Hamburg has decided to send deaconesses
to this mission.
The native church in Formosa, with
,433 communicates, has, during 1886,
contributed for the support of Gospel
ordinances and for missionary work the
sum of 81 1861 more than double the
amount contributed in 1885, and more
than six times the sum contributed
in 1882.
A European merchant is said to have
recently exported 1000 glass Gaudamas
to Mandalav, Burmah, at cost of elgh-
teen pence each. \ native merchant
bought the whole lot at eight rupees
each, and retailed them at large profit.
General Booth, the leader of the Saliva
ton Army, is planning campaign 1or
Zululand and South America. tie has
issued call for 5000 officers to be trained
to go abroad as missionaries. The call
was promptly responded to by thousands.
As an illustration of the missionary
spirit of the native churches of Bengal the
Iudian Methodist Times states that the call
it made for Bengal preacher for the
Bengal coolies in the FIJI Islands was
responded to by ten eligible young men,
The English Baptist Mission in shan
tung Province China, district OF Ism
Chan Flu, has ifty-tiye supporting
churches, ministered to by native pastors
and teachers.